The departure of the hero’s journey

When I was about to outline a story, I got this real writer’s block and suddenly didn’t know where to start. The idea was there, but that’s it. About where and how to convert it, I was lost. So my cursor just continuously blinked, unmoved, while I sat in discomfort and stared at my white, empty screen. Later in that painful moment, after I roamed over the internet for hours, I discovered the hero’s journey.

What is the hero’s journey?

The hero’s journey is an archetype of a hero who leaves the ordinary world and engages in adventures. The unforeseen quests. The trials and the failures. The allies and the enemies. The final battles and the victories. Along the way, the hero eventually learns how to navigate the new world full of the unknowns, acquire new skills, and transform into someone, or something, new.

It’s such a long-existing concept. But, Joseph Campbell, an American professor of literature, popularized the studies through his best-known work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Campbell breaks the three main categories—the departure, the initiation, and the return—of the hero’s journey into 17 stages (early reminder: I’m not gonna peel all 17 stages here).

Walking in the hero’s shoes

It comes as a handy device for fictional writing. Only that, on the other side, studying the hero’s journey also allowed me to take a brief stare at real life. It felt like I could listen to its breath as it told the story about the beginnings and the ends; beliefs and doubts; temptations and rejections.

As a template for crafting fiction, the hero’s journey felt even more familiar with real life. Like a model of our steps and slips. For one, I found myself in related situations before, for so many times. Second, my few close friends told me that they also struggled with the “what’s next” just when their life shifted.

Here are my notes on the initial stage, the departure.

The call to adventure

Joseph Campbell marks the reason a hero begins his adventure as a call to head off into the unknown. And yes, everyone listens to different calls in different forms. It could be actual calls. Or more abstract like thoughts, feelings, or memories. In the Batman, the call to adventure appears from the dark corner of the Crime Alley, takes shape as a mugger that, in the end, shoots Bruce Wayne’s parents dead. In another universe, Harry Potter discovers that he is a wizard for the first time.

Those epic calls to adventure wouldn’t happen in our life. We don’t experience, for example, being exposed to an immense amount of gamma radiation and transformed into Hulk. Or discover an ancient tomb full of mythical artifacts. In real life, we may start our adventure after being expelled from school, facing bankruptcy in business, or getting break-up messages.

Refusal of the call

Instead of suiting up and going crazy about the adventure, the hero would likely refuse the call first. “It’s too dangerous.” “I can lose everything and get nothing.” This no-thanks phase happens to Luke Skywalker, who refuses to get in trouble with his uncle by leaving his home planet. Oh, Harry Potter also struggles to accept that he is a wizard—a real one.

We have doubts too. Obviously. Not as dramatic as Harry Potter, for sure, but we also refuse certain calls for certain reasons in life. Man, I love to doubt (really, I do) myself and my capacity to answer such a call, be it an idea to execute or a career path to choose. Why would I wander outside if I can sit in the shade? Sometimes, I think it’s because I was unwilling to. But, mostly, it’s because I was too afraid of what’s to come and the stakes were just too high. Yet, the call can’t just be ignored, no matter how unpleasant it is. Otherwise, well, the story ends there.

Supernatural aid

When the hero is in doubt, a wise, long-bearded old man would appear to give the help needed. This stage happens following the hero’s refusal of the call, named supernatural aid or meeting the mentor. And that mentor is someone that would provide combat training, weaponry skills, or something more abstract like wisdom and courage. Alfred Pennyworth is here and there for Bruce Wayne. In Cobra Kai, Johnny Lawrence trains and encourages Miguel Diaz to be better than him, both as a person and as a karateka. And don’t forget Hagrid.

In reality, we don’t have the luxury of having a charming wizard-sensei. Or a butler who knows hand-to-hand combats, computer systems, sciences, whatever. But, we do have teachers, actors, Nobel Prize winners, or, if you would prefer … social media influencers. The best part is, we also have favorite superheroes that we can reimagine as mentors.

Crossing the threshold

All set. The hero finally steps on the new realm inhabited by vicious monsters, literally and figuratively. When I wrote this, I pictured a fresh grad who landed a job and ready to onboard. It happened after the long sleepless nights with cups of coffee, Grammarly Free, and a seemingly never-ending writing portfolio. He crossed the threshold, and turned out, it worked.

Can the hero go back to reprepare? This is the last stage of the departure, and too bad, it’s the point of no return.

It’s the belly of the whale.